Germany

Abstract

The importance of Germany for the study of global financial reporting is very apparent from the statistics presented in Chapter 1. Germany has the third largest economy in the world; it is a major power in world trade, being second only to the USA in the size of its exports and imports; in fact, in certain years its exports even exceeded those of the USA. German enterprises are large investors in other countries in terms both of annual flows and of stock; in both areas Germany is third after the USA and Britain. There are seven German enterprises in the top fifty MNEs: DaimlerChrysler, Volkswagen, Siemens, BMW, Bayer, VIAG and BASF.